The use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to track, identify and locate goods has grown significantly in recent years. RFID tags allow manufacturers, distributors and retailers, amongst others, to regulate products and inventory, quickly determine production, manufacture, distribution or retail needs and efficiently intake and remove items utilizing RFID tags from inventory or other supply chain situations. The RFID tags themselves can provide any desired product data and may be scanned or read in any of a variety of manners through the use of any device that has a reader or scanner.
Near-field communication (NFC) is a type of radio frequency communication technology, which allows for read-only and read-write communications between a NFC-enabled RF tag reader and a NFC-enabled tag. NFC operation is based on inductive coupling between two loop antennas, which allows for sharing of power and data between NFC-enabled devices.
Systems using bar codes or RFID devices have been used to track articles such as in parcel delivery or inventory management systems. However, such devices and associated systems are typically proprietary or designed for very specific applications and do not adequately indicate if the time-temperature threshold of a product has been exceeded. Although a variety of tracking systems are known in the art, a need still remains for a cost effective method of tracking information associated with a product having a time-temperature threshold.